Stejnegkr oil Analccta Oiiiithologica. I^I 



IV. On TlfE EARLIEST AVAILABLE NaME OF THE 



Cardinal Grosbeak. 



In Scopoli's 'Annus I, Historico-Naturalis' (Leipzic, 1769) 

 we find, on pages 139 and 140, the following description : — 



" 203. LOXIA RUBRA. 



Loxia rubra, facie nigra. Linn. 1. c. n. 5. 



DiAGN. Tota rubra, una cum rostro. 

 Femora tamen maffis fusca. 



[p. 140] In M. T. 



Apta nomina rebus inponenda ; nee innocens studium sit turpe instru- 

 JTientum, quo religio aliqua ludibrio exponatur." 



The following is a correct translation, with the addition of 

 the full explanation of the abbreviations : — 



''203. Loxia rubra. 



Red grosbeak, with black face. Linn.. Svst. Nat. ed. 12. I, p. 300, n. 5. 



DiAGN. Red all o\er in common with the bill. Thighs, however, 

 more duskj-. 



In the Museum of Count von Thurn (in museo excell. comitis Francisci 

 Annib. Turriani). 



One ought to give appropriate names; in order that the innocent 

 science shall not become the infamous means of exposing anv religion to 

 ridicule." 



It may be \\ell at once to append here, for the benefit of 

 the reader, the footnote.* with which tlie German translator, 

 Dr. T. C. Giiiither. thought it necessarv to explain the sentence 

 above. He savs : 



"This sentence of our author is incomprehensible to an\- one 

 who does not know beforehand that this American bird, in 

 Holland and England, is called the Cardinal, on account of its 

 beautiful red color. We have made this remark, although we 

 ourselves are of the same opinion, that things offensive to anv 

 religion should be omitted in every science" ( !). Wliat would 

 Messrs. Scopoli and Giinther say if they could rise from their 

 graves, and see that "\^"e use Cardinalis as a generic name, and 

 that some heretics are not opposed -to the specific appellations 

 Carduelis cardue/is and Cardinalis cardinalis ignens? 



In fact, the bird which Linnaeus describes as No. ^ of the genus 

 Loxia. in his "Svst. Nat.' (ed. 12. p. 300), is none otlier than the 



* p. 168, footnote X', of Johann Anton Scopoli Bemerkungen aus der Natur- 



Geschichte, Erstes Jahr, .... aus dem Lateinischen iibersetzt und mit einigen Annier- 

 kungen versehen von D. Friedrich Christian Giinther Leipzig .... 1770. 



